Telecom secretary Rakesh Garg has rejected a demand for review of the decision to use gigabit passive optical network (GPON) to provide broadband connectivity in rural areas, saying the technology "is power efficient and reduces fibre costs".
Garg's remark is part of an internal note to the Prime Minister's Office, which had received a request from Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT Madras that the choice of GPON technology to carry voice, data and video signals in the national broadband project should be reviewed. The Rs 21,000-crore National Optic Fibre Network (NOFN) project, implemented by state-run Bharat Broadband Networks (BBN), aims to take highspeed internet to 250,000 village blocks across India and is seen as the prime driver of India's broadband penetration target of 600 million users by 2020.
According to a new published in the Economic Times Jhunjhunwala had voiced concern over the selection of GPON and proposed an alternate fibre technology—WDM-PON (wavelength division multiplexed-passive optical network). Backing the telecom department's decision to use GPON, Garg said that alternate technologies such as WDM-PON are not yet available commercially. "WDM-PON technology mentioned by Prof Jhunjhunwala is still evolving and may take another two years to be developed and deployed commercially," he said in the letter.
With growing needs of bandwidth scalability, quality of service and support of emerging traffic patterns required by video and broadcast standards worldwide, sector experts and academics believe an emerging technology such as WDM-PON is better suited to address such challenges over fiberbased networks. But Garg said "its specifications" were unlikely to be finalised by the Genevabased International Telecom Union before 2016".
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/broadband-and-iptv-news/item/5768-telecom-secretary-rejects-demand-for-gpon-review-for-net-connectivity-in-rural-areas.html
No comments:
Post a Comment